


Running Up That Hill

by Serenityreview



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Death, Courtship, Doppelganger, Gay Male Character, Grief/Mourning, M/M, Multiverse, Not Beta Read, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-24
Updated: 2019-04-06
Packaged: 2019-12-06 19:27:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18224444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serenityreview/pseuds/Serenityreview
Summary: Eobard Thawne lost his soulmate during the Parademon invasion of Earth-69. In his grief he blindly ran to Earth-1, and met his soulmate's doppelgänger. He's determined to be with Barry again, even if this Barry seem to hate him. They are soulmate after all.





	1. If I only could, I’d make a deal with God.

**Author's Note:**

> I deleted my tumblr. You can find me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/randomsakura) & [Dreamwidth.](https://serenityreview.dreamwidth.org/)

He should’ve known that he wouldn’t be able to keep anything good in his life. These past years he had spent with Barry were stolen from the timeline. He should’ve known the universe would find a way to fuck him over. They weren’t ever meant to meet. Eobard should have been forced into an arranged marriage by his parents in the 25th century and Barry should have died on the battlefield in the 21st century, forever remaining a figure of history. But they did met, a 21st century time capsule launched into space and somehow ended up in the 25th century, bring the Flash along for the ride. Eobard was ecstatic when he discovered that the anomaly he spotted in the sky was a time capsule from his favourite time period. He nearly screamed when he discovered all the Flash memorabilia inside of it. Eobard took it home and studied every piece of it. He couldn’t believe his luck. He nearly fainted with joy when the Flash himself showed up on his doorstep to inquire about the wayward time capsule.

The words ‘the Flash is here!’ played on a loop inside of Eobard’s head. He wasn’t even sure if he was breathing properly. He certainly was being very rude by staring at the hero with an open mouth. He could almost hear his mother berate him for forgetting the proper etiquette. He at least managed to invite the other speedster in once he remembered what words were.

“Well, I’m just here for the time capsule,” the hero explained, sounding a bit embarrassed, “I didn’t mean to launch it into space nor did I mean to launch it into the future. I was playing around with the Watchtower's computer and it got ejected.”

“Oh,” was all Eobard could say. He was a bit dejected at the thought of giving up the time capsule, but since it was the Flash asking him in person he could bare to part with it. He lead the Flash into the room where he was keeping the time capsule only to realize that the room must appear rather creepy to the Flash.

“So I take it you are a fan?” the Flash asked as he took in the room.

“Yes,” there was no point in lying at this stage. “I’m a speedster too, so…” Eobard trailed off, unsure of what to say next. He certainly wasn’t going to admit that he made himself into a speedster because he was obsessed with the Flash to the Flash’s face. A sentence he still can’t believe he was now constructing in his head.

“Oh, it’s always good to meet a fellow speedster,” the Flash smiled and Eobard melted. He wished this moment could last forever.

Then the Flash took off of his mask and once again Eobard was rendered speechless. The hero had soft emerald eyes on a boyish face and short brown hair. Don’t say anything stupid, he thought to himself, don’t say anything stupid.

“My name’s Barry,” the Flash said.

Eobard made a strangled noise in his throat before hastily replying with, “My name is Eobard.”

The Flash, Barry, blinked in surprise and asked, “Eobard Thawne?”

“How do you know my name?” Eobard asked in surprise.

“Because I’ve had it on my right wrist for years,” Barry admitted happily, “I never thought I’d meet you like this.”

Eobard stared as the Flash pulled off of his right glove and revealed the name on his wrist – Eobard Thawne. _It was his name._

“That’s my name,” Eobard said, stupefied. Then hastily pulled up the sleeve on his left arm to reveal the name on his left wrist that read Bartholomew Allen. Barry must’ve been short for Bartholomew, Eobard thought distantly, and then berated himself for not making the connection sooner.

“It’s nice to meet you, my soulmate,” Barry smiled brilliantly.

Soulmate. The Flash was his soulmate, his other half. Tears welled up in Eobard’s eyes and he blinked furiously trying to hold them back. Crying isn’t becoming of a Thawne, he could hear his father say. 

“Eobard?” Barry’s tone was concerned, “are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Eobard mumbled as he wiped his tears away. I just thought I’d never get to meet you, he thought.

“Why would you think that?” Barry asked as he gently guided Eobard into his arms.

Eobard was at a lost on how to explain that his family had already picked out a fiancé for him. We Thawnes choose our own fate, was how his father had explained it to him when he asked why his parents weren’t soulmates. This match is the best for the family Eobard, was how his mother had explained it to him. He grew up knowing he would probably never get to meet his soulmate so he poured his passions into his studies and that’s how he became obsessed with the Flash. And now the Flash was here and he was Eobard’s soulmate. He wanted to shout it from the rooftops. _I met my soulmate, mother! Father! You couldn’t stop it!_

Eobard began to panic at the thought of his parents finding out, “We need to leave right now!”

“Leave?” Barry was confused, “but I just got here?”

“We are going to the 21st century,” Eobard decided then and there he wasn’t going to stay in the 25th century a moment longer.

“Okay but shouldn’t you tell somebody you are leaving?”

“Why would I bother? I’m not coming back,” Eobard explained as he used his speed to pack up his things.

“Not coming back? But what about your friends and family? Shouldn’t you at least leave a note or something?”

“My parents would not approve,” Eobard explained hastily as he checked his bags.

“Why would they not approve?”

“Because you are not from a rich and political connected family. You are not even from this century.”

“But I’m your soulmate?”

Eobard shrugged, “They wouldn’t care about that. They aren’t soulmates.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, so can we go now?”

“Sure.”

In the end he did leave a note for his parents saying that he had found his soulmate and that he was never coming back. He told them to not search for him. He hasn’t thought about his family since then.

Barry was his home, the other half of his soul and now Barry was dead, and he didn’t even have a body to bury. The words on his left wrist had turned grey, the final death knell of any hope he had of Barry being alive somewhere. Nothing mattered after that. 

He attended to two separate funerals. One for all the members of the League that died during the invasion and the other one for all the civilian lives lost in the battles. Eobard wished that he died instead. He should have died, but at that last moment Barry pushed him out of way and was hit, no, he was vaporized right in front of Eobard’s eyes. Nothing seemed real after that, not even the blood on Eobard’s hands. Barry was dead and he was alive and that was the most unfair thing in the world. 

“Eobard?” Caitlin said, “Eobard are you listening to me? Eobard you are in shock.”

Eobard looked at the doctor and laughed, “Barry is dead, Caitlin. He’s dead.”

Caitlin’s eyes were red and swollen, that was when Eobard remembered that she was Barry’s friend too. So many people have died; she must’ve been mourning too.

“Sorry,” Eobard offered quietly before standing abruptly, “I’m fine. I’ll leave.”

“Eobard, no! You are still in shock! You can’t just leave!” Caitlin called after him but Eobard paid no heed to it and he tapped into the speedforce and ran.


	2. I blinked and the world was gone.

He didn’t know where he was running to. He only knew what he was running from. He ran to escape from his thoughts, from his memories. Barry was dead and nothing will ever be right again. Even running lost some of its appeal. He only stopped running when he noticed he somehow ended up back in Central City, expect something was off, the city looked fine. There were no broken buildings or rescue workers crowding the streets. There were only people going about their regular days and a lot of traffic. It was as if the invasion never happened. _Shit, did I accidentally travel back in time?_ Eobard thought to himself. He looked around him, something was still off. He’s been done this street before, many times and he doesn’t remember the shops being arranged this way. He also doesn’t remember the big billboards advertising swimsuits being there. He had to check with Gideon.

“Gideon, where the hell am I?” he asked the A.I.

“It would appear that you have arrived on another Earth.”

“Another Earth!?” Eobard repeated incredulously. 

“Yes, this is Earth-1.”

Eobard sighed, “What’s the number designation for my Earth then?”

It was something Cisco would know. Eobard never bothered to learn because he never planned on hopping through the multiverse. He never even thought about applying his powers that way.

“Earth-69,” the A.I replied promptly.

Eobard thought about heading back but he didn’t want to. There was nothing left for him on his own Earth, now that Barry’s gone. He didn’t want to return to their apartment knowing his soulmate would never come home again. He had to go home to change out of his suit for the second funeral service and he was swamped by all the memories that lingered there. Barry in the morning making breakfast; being curled up on the couch with Barry watching TV on fast-forward, the rare times they both get a day off of work and League duties so they can sleep in and cuddle and make brunch together. In that moment Eobard hated his eidetic memory. He was genetically engineered to have it. It made schooling very easy but it also meant that all the bad memories stay vivid too. Like the last few seconds of Barry’s existence before he was vaporized, Eobard could still feel the impression of Barry’s hands on his body as he was pushed out of the way of impending doom. He wished he could forget it. Every time he closed his eyes all he could was Barry dying over and over again. It was good thing that speedsters don’t need much sleep. 

A loud noise pulled him out of his thoughts. There appeared to be an attack one block down from where he was standing. He rushed over to investigate. It appeared to be Rogues but they weren’t lead by Captain Cold. A blonde woman and a man dressed in a sharp suite appeared to be the masterminds. It seemed like they were metahumans. Eobard wasn’t really sure on what to do. If there are metahumans villain then there are probably metahuman heroes on this Earth, he didn’t know if he should intervene on someone else’s fight. Then all thoughts flew out of his mind when he sees the streak of red trailed by golden lightning rush to the scene. Barry Allen was alive and Eobard had never been happier in his life. He’s feet carried him over automatically. That was when things went wrong. Barry’s stance turned from neutral to aggressive the moment he spots Eobard’s approaching figure. Eobard noticed this change in stance but disregarded it completely. Barry was here and alive and that was all that mattered to him in the moment.

Then Barry hits him, hard; it knocked the breath out of him. Shock over took his senses. He couldn’t believe it, why was Barry hitting him?

“What the fuck have you done this time, Thawne?” Barry spits his name out like it’s venom. “And why aren’t you fighting back?!”

Eobard can’t think of anything to say but a breathless whisper of Barry’s name.

Barry made a noise of pure disgust before turning around to face the two metahumans, “I’ll deal with you later, Thawne.”

Eobard could only nod and try to catch his breath. His mind was still reeling at the thought of Barry, any version of Barry, hating him. _What has his Earth-1 doppelgänger done?_

Eobard waited around for a while for the Flash to take care of the two Rogues.

“I can’t believe you actually waited around,” Barry said when he returned.

“You said to wait for you,” Eobard answered.

“You don’t usually listen to me,” Barry replied. “What is going on? Is this some kind of new tactic you are trying out?”

“No?” Eobard was confused. Barry talked to him like he was an enemy. Were they enemies on this Earth? It shouldn’t be possible. They were soulmates after all. He tried to show this Barry his left wrist, but when he glanced at it the soulmark was still grey. There was something seriously wrong here.

“Why do you have my name tattooed on your arm?” Barry asked in alarm. “You are fucking creep, Thawne.”

“It’s not a tattoo!” Eobard protested. “It’s a soulmark!”

“A what?”

“A soulmark,” Eobard repeated as realization dawned on him. “You don’t have soulmarks on this Earth do you?”

“On this Earth?” Barry scrutinized him. “Well, that explains why you aren’t acting like your usual self. Please just go back to whatever Earth you came from, I don’t want to deal with two of you on this Earth.”

“Wait!” Eobard called out but Barry sped away. There was no way Eobard was leaving this Earth without figuring out what happened between Earth-1 Barry and Earth-1 Eobard. He wasn’t going to let another Barry down.


	3. The ghost of you is close to me.

Since Eobard was planning on staying on this planet for a while, he had Gideon create all the necessary documents for him, including a bank account so he can pay for a small hotel room on the edge of the city. He needed time to gather his thoughts and to do research on this Earth’s Flash.

He settled down on the lumpy mattress and had Gideon pull up all articles related to this Earth’s Barry Allen. He wanted to know what made this Barry hate him. Well, not him but his doppelgänger. He was surprised when Gideon pulled up newspaper articles regarding the murder of Nora Allen. He couldn’t believe his eyes. This Earth’s Barry had lost his mother at the age of 11 and his father was convicted of the murder. His heart aches for this Barry.

Henry and Nora Allen were wonderful people. They had readily accepted Eobard into their lives. They were ecstatic that Barry had found his soulmate. They never pushed Eobard for details when Barry explained to them that he was estranged from his family. They were the parents Eobard never knew he wanted and like their son they didn’t survive the attack. Eobard felt like he failed the entire Allen family. They were wonderful, warm people and Eobard could only ever pretend to be warm. If the Nora and Henry Allen of this Earth were anything like the ones on his Earth, Eobard could see how losing them could have made Barry a colder person.

He continued to check through the articles, it appeared that Henry was released from prison and cleared of all charges when Harrison Wells left a video message behind confessing to Nora’s Allen’s murder. Eobard was surprised. What did Harrison Wells had to do with any of this? That didn’t make any sense. Harrison Wells was a wealthy investor and inventor on his Earth and it appeared that he was the owner and founder of STAR Labs on this Earth and apparently he left his entire estate to Barry in the same video.

Eobard then had Gideon pull up all available information on Harrison Wells, including his biography. After his research his got an eerie feeling that his doppelgänger on this Earth had something to do with the murder of Nora Allen. It would explain why Barry hated him so much. Then Eobard saw an article listing Henry Allen as on the people killed in Zoom’s attack on the city and cried. Henry Allen was barely out of prison when he was killed. He deserved better. Barry deserved better. Nora deserved better. They all deserved better. 

He wiped away his tears can continued reading. It would appear Barry was a CSI on this Earth as well. It would appear that some things remain constant across the multiverse. Eobard smiled at that. He remembered being very surprised that the Flash had a day job.

_“You have a job!?”_

_“Why wouldn’t I have a job?” Barry said. “I’ve been a CSI longer than I’ve been the Flash.”_

_Eobard flushed at. He just always thought the Flash was Barry’s full time job but of course being a vigilante doesn’t pay well._

Eobard pushed the memory away. He needed to talk to the Earth-1 Barry again. He needed to see Barry again, to be around him, to bask in his presence. To pretend for a second that his Barry wasn’t dead. Preferably without the hostilities and the punching but he didn’t know how exactly. If he was right about who killed Nora on this Earth than this Barry might never look at him with anything but hatred and loathing. Not that Eobard would blame him; Earth-1 Eobard really fucked up his relationship with Barry. Maybe he should confront his doppelgänger first, find out what kind of person he turned out to be on this Earth, where his apparent desire for companionship had turned into the worst kind of obsessive behaviour. 

“Gideon,” Eobard said to the AI once he’s reached a decision. “Do you think you can find me on this Earth?”

“Of course,” Gideon answered, “I can run a program to find your Earth-1 doppelganger’s next probable location on this temporal plane.”

“Good,” Eobard said, “I need to talk to him.”

He looked at the greyed out name on his wrist. _I promise you Barry, I will make sure at least one pair of us gets to be happy._


End file.
